WATERBURY, Conn. (March 5, 2017) – The Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team began their 2017 season with a 12-5 win against non-conference foe Post University on Sunday afternoon at LeMoy Field. The victory, the Crimson and Grey's first of the year, moves them to 1-0 while the Eagles drop to 1-2 in the early going.

The Ravens earned their second season opening victory in the past three seasons and have gone 6-4 in schedule openers since the 2008 campaign. FPU avenged a 15-11 setback last season to Post with the win this afternoon.

The Raven offensive attack was led by junior midfielder Sean Delea (Hampstead, N.H.) who tallied a game-high three goals to go with one assist en route to a four point performance. The duo of sophomore middie Jake Castorf (Holbrook, N.Y.) and senior attack Anthony D'Aprile (Smithtown, N.Y.) chipped in two goals apiece.

FPU Junior midfielder Louis Palumbo (Commack, N.Y.) scored a goal and went 6-of-13 in the faceoff circle while team captain John Massaro (Newington, Conn.) caused a game-best four turnovers and scooped up three groundballs.

For the host Eagles, Trevor Buchas poured in two goals on five shots while snagging one loose ball. Luke McDermott, Mitchell Kinney and Alsharif Blackman rounded out the scoring for Post.

Kinney and Buchas racked up two early goals as Buchas' tally came off a Raymond Maeang feed that gave Post the early 2-0 advantage six minutes into the first quarter.

Franklin Pierce responded with five consecutive unanswered markers as D'Aprile notched the first goal of the campaign for the Crimson and Grey assisted by freshman middie Joe Palmeri (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) and Delea followed with three straight unassisted scores to compete the hat trick. Delea then set up D'Aprile to end the Raven run that moved the guests ahead 5-2.

McDermott recorded a gino two and a half minutes later off a Kinney pass to cut their deficit to two, 5-3, but at the 4:20 mark, Castorf scored to make it 6-3 at the games halfway point.

The second half was all Ravens as they outscored Post 6-2 to take the duel by a 12-5 score.

Raven junior netminder Connor Wacksman (Guilderland, N.Y.) earned the victory with a 12 save performance while snagging a game-high nine groundballs. Shane Trost fell to 1-2 on the year as he allowed 12 goals and made 13 stops.

The Ravens open up their home schedule on Tuesday when they host non-conference foe Georgian Court University at 3:30 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).